February 23, 2014

As all of you must know by now, I absolutely adore the Sweet Dreams Shawlette from Boo Knits. I have now made four of them and have many more to go (I need one myself!!!). My eldest daughter loves her shawls so much she wears them every day to work, so she needed another color! I dragged out some stash Madelinetosh Light in color Baltic and whipped up another of these babies:

This shawl is stunningly beautiful and is an easy, quick knit. What more do you need? The only problem is the cast on. Boo uses the shortest garter tab cast on I have ever seen. She has you knit 3 rows of garter to create the tab. As is true with most crescent shaped shawls, you end up with a hump at the center back of the shawl. For some people, this is very pronounced. It can be blocked out a little bit but not completely.

Sweet Dreams shown for illustration

With each one of these I have experimented with a different approach to the cast on to eliminate or at least reduce the hump. The last one I made (in Shiny Penny) was the closest I got (until now 🙂 ), but was too tight across the center:

See the little pucker at the center top? The top edge has absolutely no give. It could possibly be the yarn (50% silk), but I suspect not. It LOOKS okay, but Laura asked for something with more give and a shallower silhouette.

You can see in the top picture of the Baltic Dreams version, there is no pucker – the top edge is relaxed, the hump is greatly reduced. There is a small area at the starting tail that needs a little work while blocking, but it’s not too bad. My Sweet Dreams Cast On was born! I ended up with 37 sts instead of 7. This will work for many of Boo Knits’ designs but not many others in this exact form. The concept might work for other crescent shawls, but you would need to experiment with it to get it to mimic the rest of the shawl edge.

In addition, I just returned from the Birkie. It was bitter cold, windy with lots of new snow — a very tough ski for my birthday boy!! Plus, John had been sick all week. So, not his best race. I again missed his finish because I slipped into the bakery at just the wrong moment! That makes three years in a row! Aaaarrrggghhh! Maybe next year?? 😉

February 17, 2014

Last fall I asked Nora (Sally’s daughter) if she would be up for surprising her mom on her birthday – she jumped at it! We both flew in on Saturday afternoon and met at the DC airport. A prearranged car dropped us off at Sally’s house. Nora phoned her mom at the same time I started banging on the front door. She couldn’t figure out why Matt wouldn’t open the %$%^^& door!

Sally was stunned! She never saw it coming! Nora deserves an academy award for her portrayal of “dog-walking daughter” when her pooch, Enzo, had already been with friends for two days!! Matt never let on, and we kept it from other family members who might inadvertently spill the beans.

Sally had hoped that Nora might show up for her birthday, but by late afternoon Saturday (when Matt had never made an excuse to “run an errand” so he could pick Nora up at the airport), she had resigned herself. We really fooled her. And it is HARD to fool Sally. She knew right away that Bruce Willis was dead in The Sixth Sense …she ruins every suspenseful movie she goes to!

That evening Matt took us to a spectacular restaurant for a feast fit for royalty, so it was a really fun day!! I am now back in snowy Minnesota. Whoopie! 🙂

February 15, 2014

Today is one of those special days. It not only is Surly’s birthday(“Happy Birthday!!”) — it is one of those “special, special” birthdays. A milestone birthday. These need to be ignored! They cause people to engage in endless soul searching and hand wringing about why they aren’t where they thought they should be at this stage in life.

Well, Sally doesn’t need to embark on this exercise in hand wringing. She is just who she should be. Sally is smart, talented and leads an enviable life. She has a great family, lovely home and the perfect sister hobby. She exercises and eats right. What more could anyone ask for?

So, Sally, as you look back over the past cough – er – cough decades, reflect on the fact that you really do have a wonderful life!

February 6, 2014

Susan said last week that we both had finished projects to share, which was true. I apologize that it’s taken me so long to get back to you with mine. I kept waiting for a nice day to take photos. Ha! I’d still be waiting; this feels like a long winter. Rather than keep you waiting any longer, I’m going to share not one but two projects, hoping that quantity will make up for the not-so-great photos.

First up is my Tiong Bahru from Asa Tricosa. You may recall that my son gave me some beautiful yarn for Christmas, including one skein of Madelinetosh’s Pure Silk Lace in a sky blue color called Happiness. I couldn’t wait to start knitting with it.

Here are some pictures, starting with one before it was blocked. (I always like seeing the difference between blocked and unblocked lace.)

Blocked, but without having woven in the ends:

Finished:

The second finished object I have is yet another Sweet Dreams shawl by Boo Knits. I knit this for a friend as a hostess gift (she had invited me to stay with her for a weekend). Sadly, in my panic to pack, I forgot to bring it with me! My sweet husband overnighted the shawl, but by the time it came we didn’t have time for me to take photos of her wearing it. So, the only pictures I have are some quick shots I took just after blocking it. The yarn I used is Smooshy with Cashmere by Dream in Color. The color is Sundown Orchid.